Honestly, I was really touched by this. It’s adorable!
Indiana 2010 IDPA Championships
Alternate title to this post is “Caleb – always a bridesmaid”. The Indiana State IDPA Championship wrapped up this past weekend; due to a conflict (namely my wife’s 10 year high school reunion) I was unable to attend the awards ceremony. Initial reports that came in to me from the match to me via email indicate that I had won the state championship in Enhanced Service revolver division – turns out that wasn’t the case; instead I came home with 2nd place in ESR and 2nd in the unofficial combined revolver divisions as well.
I’m disappointed, because I felt like I shot a good match, and in fact I shot a REALLY FAST match. The winner, Pete White put up a time of 223.10 with 41 points down, that works out to a raw time of 202.60. I finished second with a total time of 241.29, 72 points down AND two procedurals (thanks Kyle), which works out to a raw time of 199.29. Third place was Massad Ayoob, total time of 248.81 with 40 points down for a raw time of 228.81.
The top 3 in ESR were as follows:
- Pete White, ESR Expert
- Caleb Giddings, ESR Expert*
- Massad Ayoob, ESR Master
The biggest takeaway I have from the match is that you cannot in fact miss fast enough to catch up. In IDPA, since the scoring zones go from 0, -1, -3, a fast -3 is rarely better than a slower 0, with 0 being the most desirable. Of course, my next two major matches that I’m shooting with the wheelgun are USPSA matches, where the scoring is different from IDPA and a fast C beats a slow A hit, so who knows how this will work out?
The Good:
My reloads were fast and smooth. Not Jerry Miculek or anything like that, but I didn’t have any of the bobbles that have hurt me in previous matches. My splits and transitions were fast and smooth as well.
The Bad:
My accuracy wasn’t what I needed it to be. I missed a couple of shots on wide open steel that cost me time and points, and had some actual misses on wide open paper at close range because I was rushing to get a static target before a disappearing target went away.
The Ugly:
2 procedurals is absolutely unacceptable. Sure, I didn’t shoot any no-shoots, but two procedural penalties indicates epic brain farts and that just can’t happen if I want to win this thing.
What’s Next:
The USPSA Area 5 Championship, then the Indiana USPSA Section Match are my next two matches with the revolver. I will say that this is the first match where I felt like I truly earned my Master Class tag – the asterisk on the “Expert” label in the standings is because I shot Master Class after everything had been finalized, so while I’m a Master class shooter, I officially shot Expert in this match.
The thing I’m most proud of is that I absolutely went for it on some stages. There were stages where I could have played cautious and not pushed my speed, but I chose to go for it and it really paid off on those stages. The stages where I had the most trouble were when I second guessed myself, so the lesson I’ve really learned is “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”.
Thanks to everyone at Atlanta Conservation Club and our hardworking IDPA Team up there to put together a great match. It was a ton of fun to shoot and I guess I’ll have to settle for second place!
Top Shot debuts to 2.1 Million people
The numbers are in for the Sunday night series premiere of Top Shot on History, and they’re actually pretty good – especially for a cable reality show! We beat Breaking Bad on AMC, a Jersey Show special on MTV (yeeeesssss), The Tudors, Treme (what the hell is a Treme?) and a couple of other shows that aren’t really worth mentioning.
Let’s keep the momentum going guys, keep telling friends and family about Top Shot and climb in the ratings!
Top Shot on Gun Nuts Radio
Click here for last night’s episode, where we answered listener questions and comments about the series premiere of Top Shot. It was a fun episode, and the 30 minutes absolutely flew by – especially when we were joined by my friend and fellow Top Shot contestant Denny Chapman, a real life Roy Rogers. Denny’s a legit cowboy, and a multi-time Mounted Action Shooting champion. So basically, he not only shoots guns well, but he does while riding a friggin’ horse. You want to talk to someone that knows horses and guns, talk to Denny. To listen to all of last night’s episode including my thoughts on Mike Seeklander’s elimination, the guns and gear, and Denny’s thoughts on what it was like being on their end of the challenge, click this link for Top Shot on Gun Nuts Radio. If you’d like to get the .mp3 file, it’s available here.
As usual, the show is available on 
for free for our iPod/iPhone/iTunes users so you can load up Gun Nuts and take us with you. Doing last night’s show was a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
If you like Gun Nuts Radio, or Top Shot, and want to support the show and help keep it on the air, take a look at the gear we have at the Gun Nuts Store and pick out one of our logo items. All purchases made there go to keep producing new episodes of Gun Nuts! Also, check out the Caleb/Gun Nuts Radio Fan Page on Facebook! We’re just shy of 500 fans, and I’d like to be over 600 by this time next week, so join up and tell a friend!
Top Shot: Anatomy of the Shot
History is doing something neat with Top Shot by posting a lot of extra content online; a lot of the interviews and stuff that didn’t make the actual episode are available on at History.Com.
For example their series called “Anatomy of the Shot” has the winning team break down how they won the challenge and what happened – you can view Anatomy of the Shot for The Long Shot here.
Area 5 Championships this weekend!
USPSA has sent a press release out about the upcoming Area 5 Championships this weekend:
Upwards of 340 of the region’s best pistol shooters in the sport of Practical Shooting will put more than 100,000 rounds will be put downrange during the three day handgun shooting championship.
That is a LOT of shooters and a lot of bullets going downrange, and I’ll be there to cover it! I’m shooting Saturday and Sunday with Team Indiana – a group of Indiana’s dedicated USPSA shooters. This is my second to last match with a roundgun before the Quest for Master Class begins, so I’m looking to do well compared to the rest of the field. There are 14 revolver shooters, at least one of whom is a Grandmaster and there are also a couple of Masters. I’m unclassified in USPSA, but when I’m on my ballgame I’m a mid-to-high A-class roughly with a wheelgun. After my disappointing finish at the Indiana Prod/SS/Revo match, I’m hoping to finish in the Top 7 shooters at the Area 5 match, but we’ll see what happens!
Top Shot mail
From reader Timmah1: Hey Caleb, I saw your bio vid on History’s website (link here – ed) and I was wondering what video that was of you for your audition? Did you film that before you tried out?
The bio video, linked above does show a clip from my audition video, which was filmed at Atlanta Conservation Club in Atlanta, Indiana. This is the whole video, it’s only 6 seconds long of me shooting an El Pres with a Springfield XD(m).
Also, if you have more questions about Top Shot, check out Gun Nuts Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts tonight at 9pm Eastern where we’ll be doing a Q&A on the show with me!
US Concealed Carry
Once again, I find myself urging people to join the US Concealed Carry Association, if for no other reason than to get their magazine titled US Concealed Carry Magazine. Yes, I have an ulterior motive – I write for the magazine, and I think it’s a very well written and produced magazine. But there’s another reason as well. USCC Magazine recently hired a new columnist to write their back page, and she’s someone you might know. That’s right, now the USCC Magazine has Tam writing a monthly column, the first of which was published in the most recent magazine and is on ammo selection.
The best thing about writing for US Concealed Carry is that they’ve recently gone advertising free – each magazine is supported by members which allows us as writers a great deal of freedom in our gun reviews. You won’t see words like “acceptable combat accuracy” or “if I do my part” in a USCC gun review; but what you will see is honest reviews from people that carry and shoot guns as a regular part of their lives.
I'm pretty sure that's not human
I saw this at Pistol-Training.Com, and I’m pretty sure it solidifies the theory that Dave Sevigny is in fact not human. It’s too bad embedding is disabled on that video, because wow. I mean seriously, he shoots 22 or so targets in 8.41 seconds with TWO RELOADS. That’s just absurd.
Gun Nuts Tonight: Top Shot Q&A
Because of the buzz generated by Top Shot’s premiere on Sunday (full episode available on Hulu) tonight’s episode of Gun Nuts Radio is going to be a Top Shot special. So tonight at 9pm the phone lines at 347-539-5436 will open up and I’ll be taking your questions about the show, the contestants, and everything Top Shot. This is your chance to interact directly with one of the 15 remaining contestants on Top Shot, and to ask the burning questions you have about the show. Join me tonight at 9pm at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts for the only Top Shot special on the air and your chance to have direct access to one of the contestants!
The show airs at 9pm Eastern time (6pm Pacific) and runs for half an hour. Questions can be submitted via call-in, the preferred method, or by joining the chat room during the live broadcast, and finally by emailing them to the show’s address at [email protected] – whatever method you choose, make sure to check out tonight’s show at 9pm Eastern time. Gun Nuts Radio – live on the BlogtalkRadio Network!